In the Torah, we learn a lot about first-born children in families. The bachur, or bachura as the first-born is called, was thought to have deserved special status above their subsequent siblings. The first-born son traditionally inherited a double portion of land, and there was a time when the first-born sons served as the priests. Ironically, the Torah also teaches us that Israel as a nation is descended from a series of second-born children. Isaac followed Ishmael and Jacob followed Esau. These conflicting views may have contributed to transfer of the priesthood to the kohanim, the levitical descendents of Aaron. However, we learn in the Torah that this transfer of the priesthood must continually take place. The first-born still have the first claim to the service of God.

This transfer takes place in a ceremony called Pidyon Haben (redemption of the first born). The ceremony involves the ceremonial transfer of five shekels of silver to a Kohen as the redemption price of the son. A shekel is actually an unspecified measure of weight. Here in America, five silver dollars are used. There are Kohanim who keep a set of silver dollars just for this purpose. They give them to the parents, only to have them returned for the redemption.

Pidyon Haben is only performed for a first-born son of two Israelites (people who are not Levites or Kohanim. The son must be the first child born of the mother and he must have been born vaginally. This is to fulfill the verse that the boy should literally be ‘the first issue of the womb.’ The ceremony takes place any time after the baby’s thirty-first day. It is often done at night and a small party follows the ceremony.